"Supporters rally to save birthing services in Holyoke"

“HOLYOKE — The sound of drivers approvingly honking their horns filled the intersection of Beech and Northampton streets Thursday as protesters held signs with a simple message: “birthing access = racial justice.”

The protest was a response to Holyoke Medical Center’s plans to close its Birthing Center by Oct. 1, despite the fact that the state Department of Public Health has deemed those services essential to the community. The group Coalition for Birthing Care Access organized the demonstration to urge HMC’s leadership to reverse course and keep the Birthing Center open.”

NewspaperGuest UserAugust 20, 2020Healthcare Justice, Alicia Fleming

"Inside the Bitter Battle to Defend Workers and Patients at a Low-Income Clinic"

“When Whittier Street Health Center unveiled its glass-sheathed, six-story, environmentally-advanced, state-of-the-art, new facility in 2012, it was seen by its Boston community as a commitment to the neighborhood and the people it serves. With brightly painted walls and expansive views across the city, it sits at the heart of Roxbury, extending an invitation of convenience and care to a population that is mostly Black or Latinx and among the poorest and least healthy in the city.

Of Whittier’s patients, 91 percent live in poverty; 50 percent deal with food insecurity; two-thirds have been diagnosed with diabetes, hypertension, cancer, asthma or obesity; 35 percent of adults are without health insurance; and life expectancy for the area served is 58.9 years. Everyone agrees that this is a vulnerable population in need of highly trained, consistent and committed healthcare. Not everyone agrees that this population is getting it.

The reasons are a mix of difficulties shared by many community health centers, including political maneuvering, funding constraints and societal disregard for the poor. But some problems are distinct to Whittier: Staff and patients have complained that ill-advised, high-handed and destabilizing management practices interfere with and disrupt clinical care.”

NewspaperGuest UserJuly 30, 2019Healthcare Justice, Unions

"As strike looms BMC nurses tell alarming stories about patient care"

“Pittsfield — An organized group of healthcare professionals with longstanding grievances against Berkshire Health Systems held a forum Tuesday night (September 19), airing in graphic detail what they say are chronic understaffing problems that have caused patient neglect at Berkshire Medical Center.

About 100 people attended the forum at the First United Methodist Church organized by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, which, at 23,000 members, is the largest union of registered nurses in the state and the one that represents BMC nurses.

BHS holdings also include Fairview Hospital in Great Barrington. However, Fairview nurses are represented by a different union, which reached an agreement with BHS on a new contract late last year, a BHS spokesman told the Edge.

With a potential strike looming, moderator Liz Recko-Morrison told the audience, ‘We think the community should be part of that discussion.’ The union, she said, has been ‘bargaining in good faith for over a year,’ while BHS management has dragged its feet.

Union members said hospital representatives had been invited but declined to attend the event, which was sponsored by a variety of labor-oriented groups including the Berkshire Democratic Brigades, the Berkshire Central Labor Council, Indivisible Pittsfield and Massachusetts Jobs with Justice.”

NewspaperGuest UserSeptember 20, 2017Nurses' Strike, Healthcare Justice

"Nurses strike at Tufts Medical Center, set to return to bargaining table"

“When staff nurse Mary Havlicek Cornacchia reported to TuftsMedical Center at 7 a.m. on July 12, it was not for the early morning shift. Rather, Cornacchia, along with nearly 1,200 of the Tufts Medical Center nursing staff, was joined by community members in what would be the first nurses’ strike in the city of Boston in over 30 years, and the largest nurses’ strike to ever occur in the state, according to the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), the union representing the Tufts nurses.

The strike came after the nurses attempted to parse out the details of their contract with Tufts Medical Center and make addendums to the existing agreement.

‘Staffing, wages and our retirement plans are the three big sticking points,’ Cornacchia, who is also the co-chair of the MNA bargaining unit at Tufts Medical Center, explained.

According to David Schildmeier, the director of public communications at MNA, the amount of participation from the nurses was unprecedented.”

NewspaperGuest UserAugust 29, 2017Nurses' Strike, Healthcare Justice